The Analytic Core is directed by Andrew Hoofnagle with Dan Raftery as the Associate Core Director and Director of the Discovery Metabolomics Subcore. The primary function of this Core is to provide Affiliate Investigators (AIs) with cutting-edge analytic assays that support the basic and clinical research needs of the community served by the NORC. The Specific Aims for the Analytic Core and the Discovery Metabolomics Subcore are: Specific Aim 1: To provide access to high-quality, cost-effective laboratory testing for AIs. Specific Aim 2: To respond to AI needs for the development, validation, and optimization of laboratory tests used in nutrition and obesity research involving human and animal specimens. Specific Aim 3: To work with AIs to optimize specimen collection and storage as well as assay platforms and workflows. Comprehensive, state-of-the-art services are provided by the Core in a highly cost-effective fashion both by developing specialized tests specifically for AIs (direct services) and by serving as a conduit for AIs to access laboratory services offered elsewhere at the University of Washington (UW) (indirect services). By handling logistics for referrals to clinical laboratories throughout the UW system, the Core seamlessly provides services that are broader in scope than would otherwise be available in a manner that is much more cost-effective than would be possible if the Analytic Core operated as an isolated unit that performs only direct testing. To meet the need for laboratory testing requested by AIs, we respond to direct requests for assays while also anticipating future needs and research directions by actively helping AIs to shape decisions related to study design and methodology and by developing new assays, incorporating new technologies, and performing the developmental research needed to establish and/or facilitate access to analyses.